UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Bellator president Scott Coker had to make a down-to-the-wire decision, but he thinks he made the call.
Bellator 241 was scheduled to take place Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. As fight week progressed, restrictions on the event increased due to the global cornavirus pandemic. First, it was decided, fans wouldn’t be allowed to attend. Then media wasn’t allowed in. Finally, just hours before the event, the promotion pulled the plug and postponed the card entirely. Despite the postponement, all fighters were compensated, according to Coker.
In his first interview since the promotion announced the postponement, Coker sat down with MMA Junkie to discuss the decision-making process and what’s next.
Hear what he had to say in the video above or read below:
****
Can you talk us through the decision to postpone tonight’s event?
“It’s an unfortunate time not just for this country, but worldwide. There are much bigger things to worry about than fights. With the current climate, we just felt like it was the right decision to make.”
Who made the ultimate call? Was it Bellator? The state government? The Mohegan commission?
“We had conversations with everybody. At the end of the day, it was this company’s decision to make that move.”
How much did the optics of this virus lead to your decision? Were you concerned about how it would have reflected on Bellator?
“It wasn’t even a consensus of the outside looking in. It was the inside looking out – how our fellow staffers, production people, some of the fighters and corners felt. It was the right thing to do. We said, ‘Just call it.’ That was really how the decision was made. Nobody called me from the outside and said, ‘You guys should go do this.’ If you had asked me yesterday at this time, I’d say full steam ahead. We had an amazing press conference in New York. That was only Monday. That was like four days. We had all this great media and press. You know what? That seems like it was a month ago now with all the momentum this virus has been gaining on this country – and worldwide.
Looking forward, what’s the plan for this card? You said it’s going to be postponed, but are there any additional details?
“We’re going to monitor how this thing starts gaining momentum or losing momentum, but there’s no plans. You can’t make plans when there is uncertainty like this. It’s tough to make plans because we don’t know, but we will be monitoring. It’s a fluid scenario. What if they find a vaccine? What if they find they can contain it? What if other sports start engaging again? These are all things we’ll be monitoring. This is a certain cycle because it’s a tournament fight. Just so you know, fighters were paid. Officials were paid. Cutmen were paid. All of the producers, the lighting guys, everybody got paid. Nobody was shortchanged. We want to make sure everybody had what they thought they were going to get. Everybody gets to go home and be with their families now.”
The UFC has decided to move some events to its Apex facility. Have you guys considered doing something like this?
“Viacom owns Paramount pictures. We could go to a lot and do the same thing. The question is: When is the right time to do it? I’m not sure that’s going to be anytime soon. We’ll monitor it for the next 30 days, and hopefully the testing will become a little bit more available, and you’ll get the results back quicker. I think that’s the most important thing: Test everybody. Then you can throw an event like that. You can say, ‘We’ll test everybody. If you guys come into the building, you know everybody is clean.’ It’s a very interesting time. I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime.”
Seemingly anyone can catch coronavirus, but do you think the nature of MMA makes the athletes more susceptible?
“I think they’re probably the least at risk. I know a couple basketball players have been infected with the virus, but they’re saying if you’re young, athletic, and in-shape, you’re kind of out of the age group it’s been impacting. I think that (group) is a little bit older, and health issues may already be in place. Who knows? It might be a situation where the younger athletes can sustain a virus to their immune system. Listen, I’m not a doctor. I have no idea. I’m just regurgitating what I’m hearing on the news. That’s really what this conversation is moving to.”
Beyond this event, what is the plan for the other events on the schedule? Can you even plan anything at this point?
“Everything is on hold. The whole schedule is on hold. I told my staff, ‘Look, guys. Stay home. Enjoy your family. Do the prep work you can do, but I don’t expect to see you in the office anytime soon. I’ll give you a call as things start to develop.’ It’s really unnecessary because we’re a team that travels on the road 30 days a year. That’s a lot of on-the-road traveling. These guys can stay home and we’ll talk through cellphone and the video system. We’ll figure it out. San Jose might get moved. Maybe it doesn’t. I haven’t talked to the venue there. I think a lot of people are waiting for the rest of the speech to see what happens today. I think a lot of people thought there would be a travel ban. I’m not sure what (president Trump) is going to do.
“… That’s why a lot of our fighters and some of our staff are like, ‘We’ve got to get out of here.’ They feel like Trump is going to put a travel ban on the whole country. Most of our staff lives in California.”
****
[lawrence-related id=499524,499530]
Bellator 241 was due to be headlined by featherweight and lightweight champion Patricio Freire (30-4 MMA, 18-4 BMMA), who was set to put his 145-pound title on the line against Pedro Carvalho (11-3 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) in the quarterfinals of Bellator’s ongoing featherweight grand prix. The co-main event was scheduled to feature the other remaining quarterfinal matchup between Emmanuel Sanchez (19-4 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) and Daniel Weichel (40-11 MMA, 9-3 BMMA).
[vertical-gallery id=499356]